save coburg olympic pool

Pool Together - wasn't it fantastic!

Last Sunday about 520 locals turned up on a frosty afternoon to pool together and celebrate that funds have been included the Moreland council's draft budget to re-open our favourite outdoor pool in Coburg for the next swimming season. The Newlands Neighbourhood House was packed to the rafters with good humoured, happy people. Kids roamed between the sandpit, inside where the music was and outside watching Sammy Star.

The speeches were good too - in particular it was really interesting hearing Frank Cox's view of life in the Newlands area. The music rocked, the sausages sizzled and the cake stall was eaten bare. In the end, we raised over $1300!! This money has been banked and will be used to fund community events at the pool or go towards the purchase of something that the pool can use.

 

A big thank-you goes out to everyone that helped out with the day and made it the enormous success that it was.

More photos here. See you all at the pool!

Pool Together

Friends of Coburg Olympic Pool would like to commend the Moreland council for listening to the people  and responding with a budget proposal to fund re-opening of the pool in time for the coming summer season.

We would like to invite the community to Pool Together, our family fun day on Sunday 29th of June at Newlands Community Centre, corner Elizabeth St and Murray Rd, Coburg North. The fun day will run from 2.00pm to 5.00pm.

Come and celebrate with us! There will be local musicians and comedians, halal sausage sizzle, raffles, cakes and badges for sale, a historical display and lots of activities for the kids.

Entry is a gold coin donation and this will start our fundraising in the spirit of the Civic Fund of the early '60's. Children were known to empty their money boxes into the Civic Fund to help get the pool built. We want to show just how many pool users, past and potential are interested in the pool's future and will have an ideas board on the day.

Hope to see lot's of you on the day!

And just a reminder... has everyone signed our online petition yet? It's up to 216, there's space to leave comments and council do read it.

Moreland council allocates money for pool in budget

by Janet Grigg
As you may have read in the local press, Moreland council has allocated $392,000 for capital works on Moreland's aquatic facilities in the 2008/09 draft budget. It appears that $360,00 of this money is earmarked for the repair of the Coburg Olympic Pool. Works to be undertaken include a refit of the reception area, general pool maintenance and the replacement of lane ropes, reels and pool covers. In response to one of our questions at the council meeting, the Director of the Program of Works advised that if this budget item is passed in July, then barring any unforeseen circumstances, the works will be undertaken early enough for the pool to be open on 1st December 2008. So although nothing is guaranteed at this stage, this is good news indeed.

At the meeting we also asked whether it was possible for Friends of Coburg Pool to be actively involved in setting the future direction of the pool, and to be included in any steering groups, committees, focus groups and the like. As we are very keen to work with the council for a positive outcome. The short answer from the council was yes, that was well understood.  So at this point we need to keep the pressure on and maybe, just maybe start thinking about that beautiful day when the pool will re-open!

You can find a copy of the proposed 2008/09 Moreland budget here and more information about the budget process in general here.

please sign our online petition

by Janet Grigg
There's a new link to the right of the website... the online petition! Please sign and pass on. It's heading towards budget time and this is when Moreland council will decide whether or not the fund the works required to re-open the Coburg Olympic Pool for Summer 2008/09. A paper petition with 700 plus signatures was presented to council earlier this year. Let's see what we can do electronically.

The photos below are from Dr Clare Wright and show the fantastic turnout at the council meeting on 14th of May. It really was packed to the rafters. If you didn't catch the link on the sidebar earlier, Clare wrote a fantastic piece for The Age, "Destroy a pool in haste, repent at leisure centre" .

In other news, the email subscription form has been fixed and subscribers should now receive each new post overnight.

residents campaign to save crumbling infrastructure

There was a fantastic turnout to last night's meeting. Colourful and cheerfully chaotic, with cake and lots of toys, the point was made that local residents are passionate about the Coburg Olympic Pool. That re-opening our pool by the Merri Creek is an issue that will not go away.

About halfway through question time, Monique interupted me scribbling in my yellow book, "if you were a journalist, what do you think the main story would be tonight?" I looked at my list: the Fawkner Blues soccer club who are angry at the state of their grounds disprepair, the man that campaigns unendingly about the state of the public toilets in the area, another question about the closure of the Newlands Senior Citizen's centre, a shocking question about the state of the Pascoe Vale Pool last summer and of course, the fact that Coburg Olympic Pool has been closed for two summers in a row because it has not been properly maintained.

"Infrastructure," I said. Monique nodded. "Anything that needs to be maintained." Yep. It's infrastructure alright. Public facilites that have been allowed to lapse into dangerous disrepair. It's like not maintaining a house properly and then having to spend huge amounts to repair damage caused by a a series of small problems like a small roof leak or slightly rusty guttering that's allowed to fester until it becomes a serious issue. Only on a much larger scale.  With much bigger bucks needed to find solutions. At one point councillor Mark O'Brien stated that he supports council borrowing to fund the repair of crumbling infrastructure.

More photos of the night here.

At this stage, we still don't know whether there will be a funding allocation to fix our pool in this year's  budget. The council is not giving any definite answers yet, it all depends on the budget, they say.

Vote 1- Coburg OLympic Pool

The Moreland Council meeting where preliminary discussions regarding the budget for the coming financial year is being held this Wednesday night. This is when decisions about the future of our pool will be made. We can make a difference by attending.

Date: Wednesday 14 May
Time: 7.00pm
Venue: Coburg Council Chambers, Moreland Civic Centre, 90 Bell St Coburg.

The plan is to get to the Council chambers at about 6.30pm and to congregate in the front of the council offices and in the foyer. Bring as many people as you can; including children (if that works for you) props like goggles, towels, bathers (if you can brave the cold), floaties, banners.

Vote 1 Pool

by Melissa Alexander
Our campaign to re-open Coburg Outdoor Pool is about to change direction.  After the council drafts the next budget we will know whether we have to continue lobbying council to feasibly allocate funds or if we will need to help them have it open in time for next summer. We are looking for a big turn out at the next council meeting, it’s being held in Coburg and we want the councilors to see how important it is to our community to have somewhere close to swim next summer.

It is an election year and we wish to use the election to push the councilors to think about whether they are doing their job and listening to the people that elected them or whether they are pursuing their own agenda. We are asking pool enthusiasts to come in their togs to the next meeting, with their kids and pool toys to share a meal. We will take a few snaps and dominate question time with the hope of showing the councilors that we will only reconsider voting in those that are listening to our needs and vote to keep the pool a quality community asset.

“How to vote” cards will be distributed amongst the crowd and will hopefully make their way into the hot little hands of the councilors. We will all have joyous time and reminisce about past days of swimming and lament on the loss of our pool. Now is the time to participate in the campaign if you have been wanting to show your support. If the council do not decide to put the money up there won’t be enough time to after the budget has been finalized to get the money, subsequent repairs and water saving initiatives up before December one. The longer our pool is closed the more unlikely it is to be opened.

Next council meeting is on Wenesday 14th May 2008.

We are meeting at 630 in the council chambers on Bell street.

Don't forget togs, toys and kids.

no pool fools

by Janet Grigg
Last Tuesday, April Fool's days as it were, a number of us gathered at the Coburg Olympic Pool to mark the end of the swimming season for the year. According to our calculations, the community has missed out on 60 plus swim days this summer! That's days with temperatures of over 25 degrees, including 15 days with temperatures of more than 35 degrees. Can you believe it? How outrageous!!!

We milled around in the sunshine and tied ribbons on the fence. It was gloriously warm and inside the fence, the green grass and the blue tiles of the pools just begged to be filled with clean water and the shrieks of children enjoying the last day of swimming outside weather.

We are not going away until our beloved pool is opened for next summer and beyond!

A call to action!

by Janet Grigg
The next Moreland Council meeting is on:

Wednesday 9 April at 7 pm
Council Chamber, Brunswick Town Hall
Corner Sydney Road and Dawson Street, Brunswick

We'd like lots of people to come along with banners and props such as goggles, beach towells, sun hats, inflatables etc. Bring your children, let your friends and neighbours know the date. Let's show how important the Coburg Olympic Pool is to this community!

This picture is of my daughter pressing up against the pool on a warm day in late January, asking me mournfully why we can't go for swim in this pool.

Easter chalking

by Janet Grigg
A few FOCOP met down by the Merri Creek on Friday morning to chalk messages about the pool on the bikepath and attach some fantastic signs made ealier in the week to the outside of the pool fence.

It was great fun, with the kids getting right into it and the grownups writing slogans and talking with passers by about the pool and what's going on. There's a lot of support out there!